5 ms·

Curious to see what HN users believe is the best smart TV to buy in terms of OS functionality, privacy and user experience?

asutekku 6y ago
Any tv, but you do not connect it to an internet and get an apple tv to do it instead.
FooHentai 6y ago
Whatever has the best panel for the best price, then strap an apple TV (or your choice of NUC) onto it and completely ignore whatever on-board smarts exist.
- covercash 6y ago
  The biggest drawback to this is the lack of support for 4K in the YouTube app on Apple TV.
  - antsar 6y ago
    And that the YouTube app forces its ads and shitty recommendations down your throat. A NUC running Kodi sounds nicer. (Yeah, yeah, pi-hole. It’s a bandaid, IMHO) Also, Apple‘s streaming services being ever more annoyingly shoved in your face on menu screens.
    - kmlx 6y ago
      it doesn't have any ads if you buy Youtube Premium
      - Nextgrid 6y ago
        This requires accepting their ToS & "privacy" policy and providing validated billing data to Google, an advertising company already stalking everything you do on the web. Some people might not be comfortable with this, or not even trust them to begin with. I personally don't mind paying but there's no way in hell I am providing any personal information to Google.
    - vetinari 6y ago
      Pihole cannot block youtube ads. You need uBlock, that can block parts of DOM tree inside a page, knowing hosts is not enough.
    - abawany 6y ago
      Pine and others have an opportunity to pair with Kodi, like Pine did with UBPorts and etc. to market a Kodi device.
    - covercash 6y ago
      I think a simple Youtube-dl + web based front end that can run on a Raspberry Pi would be a great way to help lots of people bypass YouTube.com/apps, make it as simple as PiHole for users to get going. Have it organize files in a way that would allow clients like Plex to easily access that content. Easy 4k + ad-free content on any device.
  - galad87 6y ago
    YouTube app is supposed to support 4k on tvOS 14. I don't know if Google already updated the app or not.
- m_eiman 6y ago
  This is the only reasonable solution. I've got an OLED LG "TV", connected to an Apple TV and a receiver for proper audio (using HDMI ARC). To turn everything on, I press a button on the Apple TV remote and everything is up and running within five seconds or so (from standby/sleep mode). Powering off the Apple TV also turns off the display and the receiver via HDMI CEC. Edit: http://www.eiman.tv/misc/power-on.mov http://www.eiman.tv/misc/power-on.mov
  - Sjonny 6y ago
    I found that my receiver was still using 50W while in "CEC-ready standby", while it's only 2W in normal standby, so I never use it. I'll just press a few more buttons.
    - loufe 6y ago
      That's incredible. 50W is wholy unnacceptable.
      - anticensor 6y ago
        Indeed unacceptable. That figure is quite comparable to S1 sleeping state of a desktop. Whereas a computer consumes ~10W in S3 state and can even wake up out of that when triggered by LAN.
- mFixman 6y ago
  Any reason why an Apple TV and not a Roku or a Chromecast?
  - chadlavi 6y ago
    Roku and Chromecast do the same BS as smart TVs
    - mFixman 6y ago
      ...do they? I have a Chromecast and have never seen an ad.
      - chadlavi 6y ago
        They don't display ads on chromecast, they collect info for future ads there.
bleepblorp 6y ago
A large form factor monitor hooked up to a PC. Commercial TVs aimed at the digital signage market are an alternative option to a large monitor, especially at larger sizes. They're less likely to spew advertising than consumer Smart TVs, but are probably less likely to stay clean than a monitor with no Internet connectivity. I use a Linux PC as a media decode device. It works, but I have no interest in 4K (hardware video decode is sketchy on Linux, which makes 4K difficult) or paid streaming services (if I wanted to watch sewage I'd take up urban exploration into wastewater facilities).
- JohnBooty 6y ago
  Commercial TVs aimed at the digital signage market are an alternative option to a large monitor, especially at larger sizes Do you have experience running one of these? I'm very curious about the pros and cons. I've seen it mentioned that they tend to lack features like HDR and may not have remote controls. Any other downsides? I would be fine with the lack of a remote, and probably even HDR. I would also be willing to pay a bit of a premium over consumer TVs. However, information on these displays is pretty tough to come by. I browse home theater type forums/subreddits from time to time and don't see people really talking about using them in the home.
  - Nextgrid 6y ago
    They are extremely expensive (however they are built tougher and are designed to stay on 24/24 for years) and indeed lack a lot of consumer-grade features like HDR. They are also hard to actually find & buy, you need to get them shipped and that will add another ~100 bucks to the price. I guess image quality and response time might be sub-par too compared to a top-of-the-line consumer-grade TV. They often have serial ports behind them, that serves as the remote control. They may support HDMI CEC for it as well?
  - ta8964586 6y ago
    No experience running them, but looking at samsung digital signage, HDR looks to be a feature of their high end models and extremely expensive. ~$4,500 for a 55" 4K TV [0]. The more competitively priced displays[1] (~$1300 for 70" 4K) don't seem to offer it. [0]: https://www.samsung.com/us/business/products/displays/pro-tv/bh-series/55-bht-series-qled-4k-uhd-hdr-pro-tv-terrace-edition-lh55bhtelgfxgo/ https://www.samsung.com/us/business/products/displays/pro-tv... [1]: https://www.samsung.com/us/business/products/displays/4k-uhd/qe-series/qet-series-70-lh70qetelgcxgo/ https://www.samsung.com/us/business/products/displays/4k-uhd...
sorwin 6y ago
Any TV, as long as you don't connect it to wifi/ethernet. I've been using Roku throughout my house with a home DNS server set to block all roku analytics/log servers. No interface/app issues thus far (about a year now on 4 TVs) edit: Also, aside from netflix, a local plex server with rtorrent/irssi to auto-download tv series I followl
fxtentacle 6y ago
I have a GSYNC LG OLED who has never had internet and it's connected to a barebone PC.
RandomBacon 6y ago
Sceptre TVs. They are not "smart", but less is better, so in terms of OS functionaliry, privacy, and user experience; they top the charts.

asutekku 6y ago

Any tv, but you do not connect it to an internet and get an apple tv to do it instead.

FooHentai 6y ago

Whatever has the best panel for the best price, then strap an apple TV (or your choice of NUC) onto it and completely ignore whatever on-board smarts exist.

covercash 6y ago
The biggest drawback to this is the lack of support for 4K in the YouTube app on Apple TV.
- antsar 6y ago
  And that the YouTube app forces its ads and shitty recommendations down your throat. A NUC running Kodi sounds nicer. (Yeah, yeah, pi-hole. It’s a bandaid, IMHO) Also, Apple‘s streaming services being ever more annoyingly shoved in your face on menu screens.
  - kmlx 6y ago
    it doesn't have any ads if you buy Youtube Premium
    - Nextgrid 6y ago
      This requires accepting their ToS & "privacy" policy and providing validated billing data to Google, an advertising company already stalking everything you do on the web. Some people might not be comfortable with this, or not even trust them to begin with. I personally don't mind paying but there's no way in hell I am providing any personal information to Google.
  - vetinari 6y ago
    Pihole cannot block youtube ads. You need uBlock, that can block parts of DOM tree inside a page, knowing hosts is not enough.
  - abawany 6y ago
    Pine and others have an opportunity to pair with Kodi, like Pine did with UBPorts and etc. to market a Kodi device.
  - covercash 6y ago
    I think a simple Youtube-dl + web based front end that can run on a Raspberry Pi would be a great way to help lots of people bypass YouTube.com/apps, make it as simple as PiHole for users to get going. Have it organize files in a way that would allow clients like Plex to easily access that content. Easy 4k + ad-free content on any device.
- galad87 6y ago
  YouTube app is supposed to support 4k on tvOS 14. I don't know if Google already updated the app or not.
m_eiman 6y ago
This is the only reasonable solution. I've got an OLED LG "TV", connected to an Apple TV and a receiver for proper audio (using HDMI ARC). To turn everything on, I press a button on the Apple TV remote and everything is up and running within five seconds or so (from standby/sleep mode). Powering off the Apple TV also turns off the display and the receiver via HDMI CEC. Edit: http://www.eiman.tv/misc/power-on.mov http://www.eiman.tv/misc/power-on.mov
- Sjonny 6y ago
  I found that my receiver was still using 50W while in "CEC-ready standby", while it's only 2W in normal standby, so I never use it. I'll just press a few more buttons.
  - loufe 6y ago
    That's incredible. 50W is wholy unnacceptable.
    - anticensor 6y ago
      Indeed unacceptable. That figure is quite comparable to S1 sleeping state of a desktop. Whereas a computer consumes ~10W in S3 state and can even wake up out of that when triggered by LAN.
mFixman 6y ago
Any reason why an Apple TV and not a Roku or a Chromecast?
- chadlavi 6y ago
  Roku and Chromecast do the same BS as smart TVs
  - mFixman 6y ago
    ...do they? I have a Chromecast and have never seen an ad.
    - chadlavi 6y ago
      They don't display ads on chromecast, they collect info for future ads there.

bleepblorp 6y ago

A large form factor monitor hooked up to a PC. Commercial TVs aimed at the digital signage market are an alternative option to a large monitor, especially at larger sizes. They're less likely to spew advertising than consumer Smart TVs, but are probably less likely to stay clean than a monitor with no Internet connectivity. I use a Linux PC as a media decode device. It works, but I have no interest in 4K (hardware video decode is sketchy on Linux, which makes 4K difficult) or paid streaming services (if I wanted to watch sewage I'd take up urban exploration into wastewater facilities).

JohnBooty 6y ago
Commercial TVs aimed at the digital signage market are an alternative option to a large monitor, especially at larger sizes Do you have experience running one of these? I'm very curious about the pros and cons. I've seen it mentioned that they tend to lack features like HDR and may not have remote controls. Any other downsides? I would be fine with the lack of a remote, and probably even HDR. I would also be willing to pay a bit of a premium over consumer TVs. However, information on these displays is pretty tough to come by. I browse home theater type forums/subreddits from time to time and don't see people really talking about using them in the home.
- Nextgrid 6y ago
  They are extremely expensive (however they are built tougher and are designed to stay on 24/24 for years) and indeed lack a lot of consumer-grade features like HDR. They are also hard to actually find & buy, you need to get them shipped and that will add another ~100 bucks to the price. I guess image quality and response time might be sub-par too compared to a top-of-the-line consumer-grade TV. They often have serial ports behind them, that serves as the remote control. They may support HDMI CEC for it as well?
- ta8964586 6y ago
  No experience running them, but looking at samsung digital signage, HDR looks to be a feature of their high end models and extremely expensive. ~$4,500 for a 55" 4K TV [0]. The more competitively priced displays[1] (~$1300 for 70" 4K) don't seem to offer it. [0]: https://www.samsung.com/us/business/products/displays/pro-tv/bh-series/55-bht-series-qled-4k-uhd-hdr-pro-tv-terrace-edition-lh55bhtelgfxgo/ https://www.samsung.com/us/business/products/displays/pro-tv... [1]: https://www.samsung.com/us/business/products/displays/4k-uhd/qe-series/qet-series-70-lh70qetelgcxgo/ https://www.samsung.com/us/business/products/displays/4k-uhd...

sorwin 6y ago

Any TV, as long as you don't connect it to wifi/ethernet. I've been using Roku throughout my house with a home DNS server set to block all roku analytics/log servers. No interface/app issues thus far (about a year now on 4 TVs) edit: Also, aside from netflix, a local plex server with rtorrent/irssi to auto-download tv series I followl

fxtentacle 6y ago

I have a GSYNC LG OLED who has never had internet and it's connected to a barebone PC.

RandomBacon 6y ago

Sceptre TVs. They are not "smart", but less is better, so in terms of OS functionaliry, privacy, and user experience; they top the charts.